Yes, Connecticut is a blue state. And yes, President Barack Obama's presence at the top of last week's ticket further boosted Democrats' already good prospects for victory.

Even so, many Republicans assumed after three years of campaigning on nearly $100 million of her professional wrestling fortune, U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon would have performed better on Election Day.

"It wasn't going to be as bad a loss as it was in 2010," George Gallo, a legislative staffer and former state Republican chairman, recalled thinking Tuesday.

"Turns out that's exactly what we got."

When she first ran for the Senate two years ago, McMahon lost to then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal by 12 points. Tuesday Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy from the 5th District beat her by roughly 12 points.

Was this the same McMahon whose momentum had Democrats wringing their hands into the early fall? Hadn't she and Murphy at one point been tied in the polls? What happened to that momentum?

"I wouldn't say there was one defining moment," Gallo said. "I think this was a slow build."

CONNECTICUT REJECTS SELF-FUNDED CANDIDATES

McMahon claimed her willingness to pay her own way to Washington D.C. ensured her independence from lobbyists. She attacked Murphy for accepting special interest dollars from Wall Street and other sources.

But observers say her defeats, combined with millionaires who reached into their own resources such as Republican and Democratic gubernatorial and Senate candidates like Tom Foley and Ned Lamont, should be a lesson.

"The millionaire funding his own campaign is not going to work in Connecticut," former state GOP Chairman Chris DePino, a vocal McMahon supporter, said. "We've been down this road once, twice, three times."

And yet a late October Quinnipiac University poll found 61 percent of those surveyed were not that focused on McMahon's spending.

State Rep. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, suggested voters may be wary of wealthy candidates who lack a resume of public service.

For example, though Washington-based Roll Call lists Blumenthal as the eighth wealthiest member of Congress, he was attorney general for 20 years with an earlier stint in the General Assembly.

"The idea of a maverick ... might be wonderful, but perhaps the idea of somebody working in a public service environment for a period of time and developing a track record has more weight," Hwang said.

WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT

Make no mistake: If World Wrestling Entertainment, the Stamford company McMahon built with husband Vince, left the state, lawmakers from both parties would lament the economic impact.

And also, according to Quinnipiac's poll, likely voters gave candidates with a business background the edge on qualifications versus career politicians, 49 to 39 percent.

But McMahon spent her career in the wrong kind of business.

That same poll found 59 percent of respondents had a very to somewhat negative view of professional wrestling.

"It wasn't like she started a chain of flower stores across the country. It's pro wrestling," said a Republican who works at the Capitol Building in Hartford who did not want to be identified.

While Democrats in 2010 attacked the McMahons' past programming choices and treatment of their WWE performers, some observers early in the 2012 race considered those stale tactics.

By Election Day, McMahon was appealing to inner-city Obama supporters, a strategy Democrats saw as cynical, some Republicans considered smart, and others dangerously close to an endorsement of the president.

"Her tactics in Bridgeport and in the cities, telling people to split their ticket and vote on the Independent line ... I think it may have been bizarre to some people," said Bridgeport Republican Chairman John Slater.

"You can't please everybody," he said.

Jack Orchulli, a wealthy ex-fashion executive from Darien who also ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate, said McMahon's decision to align herself with Obama "showed, from my perspective, a sense of desperation."

A NEGATIVE CAMPAIGN

Republicans praised McMahon's efforts following her 2010 loss to crisscross the state reintroducing herself to voters, including the women whose support eluded her in the contest against Blumenthal.

But both of McMahon's Senate bids included unprecedented amounts of advertising for a Connecticut race aimed at disqualifying her opponents. In McMahon's world, Murphy was an irresponsible deadbeat who missed mortgage and tax payments, received a sweetheart interest rate from a bank and shirked his congressional responsibilities while enjoying the job's perks.

The barrage did not even let up following Hurricane Sandy, leading NBC News anchor Brian Williams during one broadcast to comment, "In this part of the country those who do have television are seeing attack ads from a woman named Linda McMahon who's running for Senate up in Connecticut airing like nothing had changed, juxtaposed against the damage. It's just a very strange time."

Orchulli said when the race was tied in the polls over the summer, McMahon should have then pivoted to a more positive message and spent more time focusing on her much-touted plan for jobs and tax cuts.

"I don't think she developed that enough and had enough in-depth, positive things to say," Orchulli said.

Bates, who helped Murphy prepare for the four televised debates, believed those events showcased McMahon as a character assassin unable to deviate from campaign talking points.

McMahon's staff, following their second debate in mid-October, produced excruciatingly detailed charts to display it was Murphy, not McMahon, who spent the evening on the attack, rather than discussing policy.

But her advisers were steeped in negative politicking: Media guru Chris LaCivita was a GOP strategist to the Swift Boat Veterans who helped defeat the 2004 presidential bid of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. McMahon campaign manager Corry Bliss was sued for libel in 2010 while working on a losing gubernatorial race in Vermont. Bliss declined to comment for this story and LaCivita could not be reached for an interview.

"Corry Bliss plays to win, like any other high-powered campaign operative does across the country," said Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. "What he did here isn't anything that hasn't been done somewhere else. He's a hard-charging campaign person, and that's what he does. Some like it and some don't. I guess it all depends if you are on the receiving end."

State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, said many voters were turned off.

"I heard on Election Day, from so many people, disgust from the negativity of campaigns in general," McKinney said. "They referenced Linda McMahon, fairly or unfairly."